NC Justice Center urges lawmakers to take action to ensure North Carolinians can meet their basic needs

(Raleigh, NC – Nov 5, 2025) Already facing high housing and health care costs and low-paying jobs, 1.34 million North Carolinians must now worry about how they will feed their children because of the failures of our federal and state lawmakers to do their jobs.

Congress, the administration, and our state leaders have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that people can meet their most basic needs—yet they continue to play politics with the nation’s food assistance and health care programs, threatening the health and stability of children, seniors, and people with disabilities across our state.

Everyone suffers when the basic needs of our community members aren’t met. How does it serve our communities when our lawmakers cut funding to essential services and programs, deny pay to federal workers, and delay and reduce essential benefits for the most vulnerable among us? Already overstretched, food banks and churches cannot fill the gap left by federal and state neglect of their communities’ basic needs.

“The NC Justice Center urges Congress and the administration to end this manufactured crisis harming vulnerable communities, immediately restore and fully fund SNAP benefits, and preserve funding for enhanced premium tax credits for ACA Marketplace plans that help people afford care,” said Nicole Dozier, Interim Director of Legislative Advocacy and Director of the Health Advocacy Project at the NC Justice Center. 

As leaders in Washington continue to weaken and dismantle critical safety nets, the North Carolina General Assembly must step up to protect and defend the well-being of North Carolinians. We fully support Governor Stein using his executive power to call state lawmakers back to Raleigh to fully fund the Medicaid program as a necessary first step.

The NCGA must also halt any tax cuts so we preserve enough revenue to fully fund our schools, sustain Medicaid and other essential services, and deliver meaningful raises for teachers and other state employees. As an organization, we remain committed to fighting for policies that will keep our communities healthy, nourished, and secure.